France – Plurielle Info, June 17, 2025
“The fight for Boualem Sansal is the fight for all artists imprisoned for daring to think.” These words from Montpellier’s mayor, Michaël Delafosse, delivered on Tuesday at the Pagézy Hall, capture the symbolic and political significance of the support for Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who has been imprisoned since November 16, 2023.
At age 75—or 80, according to his lawyer François Zimeray—Boualem Sansal is currently held at Koléa prison in Algeria, after multiple hospital visits to Mustapha-Pacha Hospital in Algiers. According to Arnaud Benedetti, secretary general of the international support committee, “information is very limited, but he remains defiant.” The author of The Barbarians’ Oath and a long-time critic of the Algerian regime, Sansal has been sentenced to five years in prison. He defended himself in court, refusing state-appointed lawyers.
The charges? “Undermining state security.” A charge considered “absurd” by his supporters. “This is a political trial,” says Arnaud Benedetti, who believes Sansal is a “hostage of France-Algeria relations,” particularly following France’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
A Broad and High-Profile International Support Committee
In response to what they see as a blatant injustice, more than 1,500 individuals have joined the support committee—including 300 parliamentarians, former presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, and intellectuals such as Edgar Morin and Michel Onfray. Mayors of major cities like Paris, Toulouse, and Montpellier, as well as the French Mayors Association, are also backing the initiative.
